A dozen protesters and a dog marched up Main St. in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia today to raise awareness about climate change and the destruction of the environment. The protesters waved signs and banged drums and garbage cans as they made their way to Tim Hortons.

“We’re making a little noise, we’re creating a little awareness,” organizer Judith Bauer told a bystander on the sidewalk.

The Parrsboro march was part of a worldwide protest in which tens of thousands urged world leaders to agree on strong environmental measures at the United Nations summit on climate change that begins tomorrow in Paris.

“We’re trying to get the message out there that we’re responsible to change the way that we live if we want to give our children and our grandchildren a planet that’s habitable and as beautiful and rich as the one that we inherited,” said Harvey Lev, another organizer of the Parrsboro march.

Lev joked that the protest was one way of putting Parrsboro on the world map but he added seriously that the town is already known for its many natural endowments including its cliffs, fossils, beaches and abundant sea life in the Bay of Fundy. Lev said all are in danger because of rising seas and pollution.

“The town itself is pumping raw sewage into the ocean,” he said. One of the main staples of Nova Scotia used to be fish and they’re poisoning the fish…You pour old paint down the sink, it ends up in the Bay.”

Lev acknowledged that local politicians say they’re planning to build a sewage treatment plant by 2020, but he has his doubts.

“We get all kinds of promises that politicians make and I’m too old to be impressed with the lies they tell us,” he said.

The Parrsboro protest was one of more than 2,400 such events around the world.